Hyperledger Project, an open source blockchain initiative hosted by the Linux Foundation, has hit a major milestone of 100 active members. Several new members from China have joined the project, including Dianrong (formerly SinoLending), Shanghai Gingkoo Financial Technology and ZhongChao Credit Card Industry Development Company.

"As a fintech company, Dianrong has always been at the forefront of applying emerging technologies to finance," Peng Bi, Vice President of Engineering, said in a statement. "While our core business is connecting lenders and borrowers on our peer-to-peer lending platform, blockchain inherently applies to our business model since it can enable anonymous transactions between two unknown parties, solving the trust issue."

Dianrong is a leading internet financial services company in China, specializing in alternative financing solutions. The company was founded in 2012 by Soul Htite, Co-Founder and former Head of Technology at Lending Club. Dianrong now ranks among the top three peer-to-peer lending platforms in China, according to a report by Wdzj.com and Yingcan Consulting.

Htite has hinted numerous times at his company's interest in blockchain technology,stating earlier this month that Dianrong has been developing blockchain applications for use in online lending. He said that that the company has committed to invest between U.S. $30-40 million in development over the next two years.

According to Bi, alongside peer-to-peer lending, Dianrong is "also investigating other blockchain applications, such as consumer finance, borrower credit and contract certification."

As for Ginkgoo, the company is looking "to explore how to serve banks with distributed ledger technology in China," said Bruce Zeng, Manager, Gingkoo Blockchain Department. "We have developed our own Starfish [blockchain] and established partnerships with many blockchain companies worldwide."

Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Zeng for further details on the company's Starfish blockchain, but didn't receive a response.

For the ZhongChao organization, joining Hyperledger allows the company to further advance currency digitalization. "We believe it is the next evolution of financial technology," said Yifeng Zhang, President, Zhongchao Smart Card Research Institute. "We will cooperate with the central bank and financial institutions for further development of the industry."

As of November 29, the Chamber of Digital Commerce has also entered into a strategic partnership with Hyperledger. This will leverage both the Chamber’s public policy knowhow and Hyperledger’s technology expertise to further promote the understanding, acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies. The Chamber and Hyperledger will work in tandem on public policy efforts, intellectual property issues, and global regulatory and technical interoperability.

“A pro-growth perspective towards regulation and industry standards are some of the biggest challenges the open source community faces,” said Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. “We are excited to work with the technical experts and open source community at the Hyperledger Project to further support our efforts on behalf of the blockchain industry.”

Other members that have recently joined Hyperledger include, Beijing Botuzongheng Science & Technology Co. Ltd., an Altoros Americas LLC.

Launched in December 2015, Hyperledger Project is a collaborative cross-industry effort aimed at advancing blockchain technology by creating an open standard for "a new generation of transactional applications."

The initiative is supported by prominent players in the technology, finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chain and manufacturing industries. These include SWIFT, Deutsche Bӧrse Group, DTCC, IBM, R3 and Thomson Reuters, among others.

"The growth and support across the globe is a testament to the need for an open source initiative, like Hyperledger, that accelerates the development of blockchain software and systems to reinvent industries," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director at Hyperledger.

Among Hyperledger's membership, 41 percent comes from the U.S., followed by China with 25 percent, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with 20 percent, and Asia-Pacific with 14 percent.

This year, several open source blockchain and distributed ledger projects moved into incubation under Hyperledger — including Hyperledger Fabric, Sawtooth Lake, Blockchain Explorer and Iroha.

In October, Hyperledger launched the Hyperledger Healthcare Working Group to foster conversations and proposals for applications of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry.

The price of ether (ETH) fell below $8 for the first time since April today, dropping to its lowest total in almost seven months. Overall, ether prices suffered slight fluctuations for the day's trading, falling to as little as $7.88 at 08:34 UTC. The decline in price followed a spate of tech challenges for the ethereum network, which recently suffered […]

The inaugural Smart Contract Symposium convenes December 5 in Times Square, not far ahead of the seating of the 45th President of the United States and thousands of new appointees, most of whom are untutored in blockchain technology, digital currencies and related innovations.

The Symposium, presented by the Smart Contract Alliance of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, is continuing to take advance registrations for the event, hosted at Microsoft’s Technology Center in the heart of New York City.

Uncertainty regarding what the next administration brings to the industry adds to the timeliness of next week's unprecedented gathering, which is expected to draw 250 attendees, said Perianne Boring, the Chamber's Founder and President.

Building a shared understanding among the industry and policy communities about the potential benefits and current realities of smart contracts is crucial, no matter who’s in charge, she said in an interview withBitcoin Magazine.

Boring explained that while advance registration remains open, the event is likely to sell out soon. Organizers of the boutique-scale event in the relatively compact Microsoft facility have placed a premium on ensuring ample opportunities to explore and discuss use cases for smart contract adoption, and to exchange ideas among attendees from financial institutions, legal and regulatory experts, blockchain technologists and innovators.

The symposium agenda suggests there'll be plenty of actionable information

Registrants will have advance access to a new whitepaper, which drew input from a dozen or more of the most influential companies in smart contracts. The paper will include use cases spanning finance and trade, healthcare, accounting, real estate, insurance, trade and finance and other verticals, said the Chamber president.

Shanghai-based Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) company, BitSE, is opening possibilities for every industry with the official launch of VeChain, a cloud product management platform built on a blockchain, at a recent event in Shanghai.

Due to a shared interest in expanding the use of blockchain technologies, BitSE is collaborating with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to boost blockchain adoption in the Asian Pacific markets, with the goal to help their clients design and implement innovative blockchain solutions.

VeChain focuses on four areas: anti-counterfeiting, supply chain management, asset management and client experiences. By putting unique IDs on the blockchain and embedding each product with an NFC (Near Field Communication) chip, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag or QR (Quick Response) code, all of which can verify whether an item is genuine or not, VeChain provides an opportunity for different enterprises to easily create, manage, maintain and update shared data.

BitSE COO Sunny Lu told Bitcoin Magazinethat the VeChain launch is a symbolic moment, not just for BitSE but for the whole industry.

“We found the right path to apply blockchain technology,” Lu said. “The best way to know if a technology is impacting the world is by seeing if that technology can be monetized, and even before the launch we had signed some contracts with clients.”

BitSE is hoping to achieve three objectives with the launch of VeChain.

First, by putting unique IDs on the blockchain, they want to apply blockchain technology to creating a transparent supply chain. VeChain can solve issues related to counterfeit products, through tracking and tracing merchandise, communication and cooperation among different parties in the supply chain, and supervision by government agencies, to name a few.

Only last month at Shanghai’s Fashion Week, BitSE’s VeChain project teamed up with independent fashion label Babyghost to put fashion on the blockchain.

By doing so, they gave the fashion crowd a unique experience, linking the fashion world with the digital world, and giving customers the ability to discover product information about the clothing they buy.

The second objective BitSE wants to achieve through VeChain is to make a connection between the different IT systems that operate on the supply chain. Lu said that current IT systems are kept separate from one another, creating a lack of trust regarding the information among the various parties.

“With VeChain, we can make a connected information system that will help automate much of the supply chain,” he said. “We want to enable the commercial world to do something they weren’t able to do before and wouldn’t be able to do without this platform.”

Thirdly, they are attempting to increase the efficiency of the supply chain. At present, a lot of processes still run on paper, requiring a high amount of trust in the system. BitSE plans to integrate the flow of funds, information and goods, and to decentralize the trust aspect of trade.

Teaming Up with PwC

Speaking at the recent Shanghai Conference, Elton Huang, Senior Partner for PwC’s Shanghai office and the central markets leader, said that when choosing to work with a startup company, PwC looks to see what that company is working for: money, fame or a special mission.

“The mission of PwC is to solve important problems and build up social credit,” he said. “PwC focuses on companies whose motivation is to solve important problems.”

According to Huang, there are three big blockchain-related opportunities for the partnership with BitSE: the opportunity for 400 million middle class consumers in the country to participate in anticounterfeiting, thus producing a boom in the economy; finding solutions to improve service efficiency; and the need for true industrial automation, including an industrial Internet of Things (IoT).

Lu said that BitSE decided to partner with PwC because, while BitSE has expertise in blockchain technology and applications, PwC has vast business resources and industry knowhow. As such, Lu believes it will be a very effective partnership.

Along with monitoring over 200 technologies globally — such as augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchain — PwC is eager to cooperate with BitSE and VeChain, which resulted in the signing of a strategic joint business relationship agreement on May 31 this year.

“Before our partnership, we couldn’t imagine what a disruptive force PwC could be with new technology,” Lu adds. “We provided them with our blockchain knowledge, they provided us with their business experience, [and we have] engaged customers together and made significant progress delivering projects.”

PwC employs more than 200,000 people around the world, including nearly 10,000 people in China, and generates over $30 billion in yearly revenue. As it celebrates its 110th anniversary this year, there is the perception that PwC is too big to be innovative.

Huang acknowledged change can be hard for a company as big as PwC. We live in an uncertain world with the elite controlling many of resources, he said. And yet, if you take the example of the financial industry, if the center is removed, we share one ledger,

“In other words,” he added, “all the information held by banks is not bank centric, but distributed and shared. You will find that the uncertainty of the world changes, [and that while] information between people is asymmetrical, with blockchain technology that will change.”

What makes a blockchain a blockchain? The Bitfury Group is now weighing in with its definition of one of the more often-debated words in the FinTech sector. As part of its recent shift toward enterprise blockchain services and consulting, the Bitfury Group's latest research paper, entitled 'On Blockchain Accountability', takes aim at this argument, aiming […]

Stratumn CEO Richard Caetano and Head of Research Anuj das Gupta joined us to discuss their work to bring security and integrity to processes. We covered the philosophy behind the company and why they use cryptography and other technologies coming out of the crypto space while shunning a classical blockchain design.

Topics discussed in this episode:

How Paris-based startup Stratumn was founded

Why Stratumn's thinking revolves around processes

How Proof-of-Process secures the who, what, where, when and why of each step of a process

How Stratumn uses Zero Knowledge Proofs to protect privacy

The connection between Proof-of-Process and blockchain protocols

Why using cryptography to secure processes didn't gain traction earlier but does so today

Stratumn CEO Richard Caetano and Head of Research Anuj das Gupta joined us to discuss their work to bring security and integrity to processes. We covered the philosophy behind the company and why they use cryptography and other technologies coming out of the crypto space while shunning a classical blockchain design.

Topics discussed in this episode:

How Paris-based startup Stratumn was founded

Why Stratumn's thinking revolves around processes

How Proof-of-Process secures the who, what, where, when and why of each step of a process

How Stratumn uses Zero Knowledge Proofs to protect privacy

The connection between Proof-of-Process and blockchain protocols

Why using cryptography to secure processes didn't gain traction earlier but does so today

While momentum for bitcoin as a consumer payment method has waned, Bitcoin Black Friday is still attracting attention from merchants its fifth year on. The event, a bitcoin version of the usually aggressive, post-Thanksgiving shopping spree, started in 2012 as what its founder Jon Holmquist calls "a half-baked idea". But that impromptu first year has blossomed […]

Monday, 28 November 2016

Social and philanthropic use cases involving bitcoin have increased over the years, helping to push its adoption. This year, the bitcoin community is aiming to demonstrate once again how important bitcoin is as an opportunity for charitable giving with Bitcoin Giving Tuesday.

Held each year after Black Friday, Bitcoin Giving Tuesday — an extension of the global #GivingTuesday — is when charities, companies and individuals raise money for their favorite causes. Taking place this year on November 29, Bitcoin Giving Tuesday is a new global movement that aims to raise the awareness of charities and individuals about the digital currency.

Woodrow Rosenbaum is Executive Director of Canadian-based GIV3 Foundation, one of the founding partners of the Giving Tuesday movement in Canada. Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, he said that, when they initially launched the challenge in 2014, the Foundation had a lot of difficulty garnering interest due to the major price drop in bitcoin at the time. Now, however, things have changed.

“We think there is [an] untapped opportunity for charitable giving in the bitcoin community and we would like to help charities understand and benefit from the opportunity,” Rosenbaum said.

He adds that the GIV3 Foundation is looking at plans to relaunch the challenge at the end of November and running it through December.

“Our hope is that we can raise enough to fund some tools and resources for the global nonprofit community,” Rosenbaum said. “That way we can... engage the bitcoin community in Giving Tuesday, so that they can get involved and help build another facet of the movement.”

At the beginning of the month as part of Giving Tuesday, they announced that they would be donating 10 percent of their apparel sales from November 1 to 24 to Ronald McDonald House (RMcH) in Albany, in the Capital Region of New York. The charity, which is dedicated to improving the health, development and wellbeing of children and their families, also accepts bitcoin donations made directly via their website.

After hearing about the digital currency from the NY Bitcoin Group, which facilitated the partnership, the RMcH began accepting bitcoin donations in November 2014. Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, Julia Patterson from The Bitcoin Store said that, as this was the company’s first time taking part in Bitcoin Giving Tuesday, they wanted to make a positive impact on the world through the RMcH charity.

“They provide extremely valuable services to very ill children and those children’s families,” Patterson said. “As they already accepted bitcoin, it made the partnership a no-brainer.”

The proceeds from The Bitcoin Store will go directly into RMcH’s Family First Fund, which will help pay for supplies and services for the families RMcH serves — such as, formula for severely ill infants and car repairs to make sure children can get to their medical appointments.

Jeff Yule, executive director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region, said to Bitcoin Magazine that the charity has been humbled by the support that the bitcoin community has provided.

“We have raised about $6350 through bitcoin efforts over the past two years, with most of that centered around Giving Tuesday,” Yule said. “My experience is that Bitcoiners are dialed in and pretty discerning when it comes to investing into charities.”

For Gianni D’Alerta of the online Bitcoin merchandise store 51Attack, the BitGive Foundation was a natural choice for him to choose as the beneficiary of his company’s Giving Tuesday Donations, due in part to the “tenacity and experience” of its founder, Connie Gallippi.

“There are a handful of philanthropies established in the Blockchain world. BitGive was the first to become an official 501c3 non profit.” said D’Alerta. “The BitGive team is very transparent with their giving. I also support the different initiatives they have picked to apply their donations to.”

The SENS Research Foundation, a public charity that is transforming the way the world researches and treats age-related disease, is also taking part in Giving Tuesday. For SENS, Giving Tuesday is the day they receive the most donations, which are critical in supporting its programs and the administration of the foundation.

Vice President of Outreach at SENS, Jerri Barrett, said to Bitcoin Magazine that, as more people realize they accept bitcoin donations, there will be more engagement from the public who support their work.

“We have had a number of very generous donors come to us now that we accept bitcoin,” said Barrett. “It is still less than traditional donations — such as via PayPal or check — however, we are seeing it grow every month.”

In 2015, SENS received several matching grants that were specific to Giving Tuesday, and they are hoping to secure additional ones this year. For 2016, the charity has two goals: increase the number of donors who do subscription donations each month, with a matching donation of up to $3,000 per month; and to raise $150,000, which will be matched by the Forever Healthy Foundation. The money raised will support their programs such as their OncoSENS and MitoSENS internal research programs, their external programs, their outreach campaigns and their education programs.

By most accounts, the activation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) should be a boon for bitcoin. The code, first proposed last December, has been introduced to the network, and at least 20% of bitcoin's hashing power is now signalling support for the software change that is expected to provide the first significant boost in capacity to […]

Noelle Acheson is a 10-year veteran of company analysis, corporate finance and fund management, and a member of CoinDesk's product team. The following article originally appeared in CoinDesk Weekly, a custom-curated newsletter delivered every Sunday, exclusively to our subscribers. After a week of rumors and speculation, this much we know: Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander and Morgan Stanley […]

Sunday, 27 November 2016

Tonight we talk with Michael W Dean and Derek Sloopy of BipCoin. BipCoin is a Namecoin alternative that solves many of the problems Namecoin overlooked. Michael is also a lead member of Freedom Feens radio a national radio show on the GCN network. We also get into the work that Derrick Slopey does for FreeRoss.org

On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...

Stephanie and Adam sit down with Roger Ver to discuss the similar yet sometimes-suppressed viewpoint of onchain & offchain bitcoin scaling. This is the second half of our hour long conversation (catch up on part 1 here )

On the day after American Thanksgiving, bitcoiners (along with everyone else) will begin their holiday shopping in earnest, with Bitcoin Black Friday sales competing for shopping dollars by offering big discounts. In conjunction with mainstream Black Friday, merchants in the space will offer exclusive discounts to digital currency users. Here are a few options for anyone looking to get a good deal on some crypto-friendly merchandise this weekend.

Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallet manufacturers including Trezor, Ledger and OpenDime have officially announced various exclusive deals they will offer on Bitcoin Black Friday.

Ledger, known for its popular hardware wallets, Ledger Nano and Nano S, are offering a 21 percent discount on all products. The Ledger Nano S, a bitcoin and ether hardware wallet, will be available for $48.43. The Nano S wallet is a secure and robust alternative to online web or mobile wallets for digital currency storage.

The hardware wallet’s innovative OLED display enhances user experience, making it easy for beginner bitcoin and ether users to store their assets.

"Bitcoin Black Friday is a very important date for us where we usually see the highest level of sales of the year,” Eric Larchevêque, CEO at Ledger, told Bitcoin Magazine. “That is why we have decided to launch the Ledger Blue this Friday, combining a great promo price with the great exposure of this event.”

Trezor is offering exclusive deals on Bitcoin Black Friday similar to last year: $20 off all products, including its signature TREZOR hardware wallet, and Cryptosteel, a stainless steel alternative to paper wallets. In order to get the deal, customers will need to use a discount code at checkout.

Opendime, a small USB stick-based bitcoin wallet developed by Coinkite, is offering a 15 percent discount on its hardware wallet. The product, which the company likes to call the Bitcoin Stick, can be used to store bitcoin, spend funds, or check balances by plugging the USB wallet into a computer.

“Opendime is a small USB stick that allows you to spend bitcoin like a dollar bill. Pass it along multiple times. Connect to any USB to check balances. Unseal anytime to spend online. Trust no one,” the company states.

OpenBazaar Stores and Other Specialty Sites

Various OpenBazaar stores and other unique platforms have announced their participation in Bitcoin Black Friday. The OB1 team released an official list of 10 stores that will be offering exclusive deals on November 25. These include:

Agorist Hosting: Free service upgrades.

Bitcoin Not Bombs: Shipping deals and a free gift.

CryptoBooks: Andreas Antonopoulos’ new book The Internet of Money is available for a significantly low price.

Crypto Collectibles: Every order made from Black Friday (November 25) until Cyber Monday (November 28) will get a free gift and will be entered into a special raffle.

Crypto Jeweler, the world’s first digital currency jewelry store founded in early 2014, is offering 25-50 percent off on its products, including up to 25 percent off on its holiday collection. The site allows shoppers to view prices in both bitcoin and fiat currency. The company will also consider trading in other digital currencies, on request.

If you are looking for Bitcoin and other crypto fashions featuring your favorite coins, 51Attack has Black Friday deals of 10 percent off all orders. It accepts payment in seven different digital currencies and carries crypto-branded tops and caps for men and women.

And of course, if you want to take advantage of the many deals available on Amazon this Black Friday, you can do so with your bitcoins by shopping through Purse.io for an additional discount of up to 15 percent.

As many as seven members of the R3 banking consortium have yet to express interest in funding the startup's ongoing $150m funding round, leaked documents reveal. Released on PasteBin this morning (and confirmed by sources close to the deal), the text details a list of the banks that have expressed interest in participating in the […]